continue/docs/reference/deprecated-codebase.mdx

---
title: "@Codebase (Deprecated)"
description: Deprecated codebase context provider - use the new codebase awareness approach instead
keywords: [deprecated, codebase, embeddings, context, legacy]
noindex: true
---

<Warning>
  **This feature is deprecated.** The `@Codebase` context provider has been deprecated in favor of a more integrated approach to codebase awareness. Please refer to our [Guide on Making Agent Mode Aware of Codebases and Documentation](/guides/codebase-documentation-awareness) for the recommended approach.
</Warning>

## Migration Guide

If you're currently using `@Codebase` or `@Folder` context providers, please migrate to the new approach outlined in our [codebase and documentation awareness guide](/guides/codebase-documentation-awareness). The new approach provides:

- Better integration with Continue's Agent mode features
- More intelligent context selection
- Improved performance and accuracy

## Legacy Documentation

*Below is the original documentation for the `@Codebase` context provider, preserved for reference*

Continue indexes your codebase so that it can later automatically pull in the most relevant context from throughout your workspace. This is done via a combination of embeddings-based retrieval and keyword search. By default, all embeddings are calculated locally using `transformers.js` and stored locally in `~/.continue/index`.

<Info>
  **Note:** `transformers.js` cannot be used in JetBrains IDEs. However, you can
  select a different embeddings model from [the list
  here](../customize/model-roles/embeddings).
</Info>

## How to Use @Codebase and @Folder Context Providers

Currently, the codebase retrieval feature is available as the "codebase" and "folder" context providers. You can use them by typing `@Codebase` or `@Folder` in the input box, and then asking a question. The contents of the input box will be compared with the embeddings from the rest of the codebase (or folder) to determine relevant files.

### When @Codebase Context Provider Is Useful

Here are some common use cases where it can be useful:

- **Asking high-level questions about your codebase**
  - "How do I add a new endpoint to the server?"
  - "Do we use VS Code's CodeLens feature anywhere?"
  - "Is there any code written already to convert HTML to markdown?"
- **Generate code using existing samples as reference**
  - "Generate a new React component with a date picker, using the same patterns as existing components"
  - "Write a draft of a CLI application for this project using Python's argparse"
  - "Implement the `foo` method in the `bar` class, following the patterns seen in other subclasses of `baz`.
- **Use `@Folder` to ask questions about a specific folder, increasing the likelihood of relevant results**
  - "What is the main purpose of this folder?"
  - "How do we use VS Code's CodeLens API?"
  - Or any of the above examples, but with `@Folder` instead of `@Codebase`

### When @Codebase Context Provider Is Not Useful

Here are use cases where it is not useful:

- **When you need the LLM to see _literally every_ file in your codebase**
  - "Find everywhere where the `foo` function is called"
  - "Review our codebase and find any spelling mistakes"
- **Refactoring tasks**
  - "Add a new parameter to the `bar` function and update usages"

## How to Configure @Codebase Context Provider Settings

There are a few options that let you configure the behavior of the `@codebase` context provider, which are the same for the `@folder` context provider:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="YAML">
  ```yaml title="config.yaml" 
  name: MyProject
  version: 0.0.1
  schema: v1

  context:
    - provider: codebase
      params:
        nRetrieve: 25
        nFinal: 5
        useReranking: true
  ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="JSON">
  ```json title="config.json"
  {
    "contextProviders": [
      {
        "name": "codebase",
        "params": {
          "nRetrieve": 25,
          "nFinal": 5,
          "useReranking": true
        }
      }
    ]
  }
  ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

### `nRetrieve`

Number of results to initially retrieve from vector database (default: 25)

### `nFinal`

Final number of results to use after re-ranking (default: 5)

### `useReranking`

Whether to use re-ranking, which will allow initial selection of `nRetrieve` results, then will use an LLM to select the top `nFinal` results (default: true)

## How to Ignore Files During Indexing

Continue respects `.gitignore` files in order to determine which files should not be indexed. If you'd like to exclude additional files, you can add them to a `.continueignore` file, which follows the exact same rules as `.gitignore`.

Continue also supports a **global** `.continueignore` file that will be respected for all workspaces, which can be created at `~/.continue/.continueignore`.

If you want to see exactly what files Continue has indexed, the metadata is stored in `~/.continue/index/index.sqlite`. You can use a tool like [DB Browser for SQLite](https://sqlitebrowser.org/) to view the `tag_catalog` table within this file.

If you need to force a refresh of the index, reload the VS Code window with <kbd>cmd/ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>shift</kbd> + <kbd>p</kbd> + "Reload Window".